I always knew it was only a matter of time. Tapping into hardware off-site, versus a physical unit in your home. Virtual hardware, if you will.Imagine this:
• No more having to shell out hundreds of dollars every three or four years for a new, "technically advanced" game console
• No more having to buy hardware accelerators for your PC
• No more having to go out and obtain a game you want to play -- simply download it -- any game for any platform
• You can play any game for any platform, and you do not need to own the game or the hardware
• You and your friends can play any online game together, for any platform, and none of you even have to own the same game system
• You and your friends can play any online game together, for any platform, and none of you even have to own the same game system
• All you need is a broadband connection
At least, this is the plan. OnLive is a revolutionary new service aimed at fulfilling all of the above, and more.
And there are several big-name software publishers -- including Electronic Arts -- either onboard or mulling the prospects. It makes sense for third-party game companies to jump on this. It would circumvent all sorts of costs associated with publishing and/or distributing a game. No more bulky shipments of jewel cases, CD-ROMs, instruction manuals. No more in-store P.O.P (Point Of Purchase) display materials. No more physical production lines pumping out physical game discs or other materials. No more warehouses, no more trucking companies... the list goes on and on.
Imagine playing Call Of Duty 4 against your friend who has a PlayStation 3... and all you have is a crummy, six year-old PC. It is possible! How? Because you aren't using your hardware to run the game -- the game is being run off-site! You're only using your hardware as a connection... a portal, if you will.
It sounds too crazy to be true. But some gaming site personnel have actually played OnLive games via the service and have sworn up and down that the games run -- with little to no noticeable lag time!
The OnLive universal controller
The beta testing phase rolls out very soon. If all goes well, OnLive will be fully functional by the end of the year.
I'll be sure to follow up on this as more news develops.
Special thanks to Eric!
Further more the signups for the beta have already begun.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.onlive.com/beta_program.html
For those that are interested.
Its one thing to run this with a few dozen people at one time but it's another thing to run a game on a server with 500,000 people playing at one time. We will see how this pans out!
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